Posts tagged crying

John and Nathan, like all siblings on the entire planet, have moments where they don’t get along too well. Don’t get me wrong, they are great brothers and Nathan is reallly, really good with John. But, of course, they are still brothers. And brothers will get into spats at some point. Sometimes Nathan is the instigator, and believe it or not, sometimes John is. I keep telling Nathan not to pick on his brother because it’s going to come back and bite him. I suppose Nathan didn’t know I meant that literally.

So the other day, Nathan was being disrespectful to me so I put him in time out. While he was in time out, facing the wall, I had to finish doing what I was trying to get done. While I was working, I heard Nathan shrieking, and then John joined in. I hollered for them to be nice to each other and reminded Nathan to stay in time out. A few seconds later, I heard more screeching followed by Nathan crying, “Just leave me a lone John! OWWW! STOP! John that hurts!” I walked into the living room to see what was going on and this is what I found:

Nathan was still in time out, hunched over and sobbing with giant spit circles all over the back of his shirt. Apparently, John had bitten him all over his back while he was sitting there, leaving giant spit circles where he chewed on Nathan’s shirt as he was biting him. I had enough time to quickly snap this picture before I ran outside and erupted in a fit of laughter. I didn’t want Nathan to think I was laughing at him, but I was definitely laughing at the situation. Once I got my laughter under control, I came back inside and put John in time out and told Nathan I was impressed he stayed in timeout while under attack.

Speaking of which, there was another incident where John bit Nathan. Nathan had done something to John- maybe he took away a toy John was playing with. Whatever the reason was, John retaliated by biting Nathan on the rear and clamping down with his teeth and refusing to let go. Nathan was shrieking and running around the house with John’s teeth clamped on his rear like a fox trap.

Things John has done during moments when I turned my head. As much as I would love to, I can’t be a Helicopter Mom and hover over his every move. I still have to clean, do laundry, use the restroom, and take care of Nathan, to name a few reasons. This little boy keeps me on my toes, for sure!

-Pulled down the floor lamp and banged it on the floor

-Wrapped himself up in electrical cords that I mistakenly thought were secured to the wall

-Dragged a small end-table across the living room while banging it on the floor

-Scooted into Nathan’s room, closed the door, wedged himself in front of it and started crying. It was quite a fiasco to get the door open with him sitting there- I didn’t want him to get hurt!

-Scooted his way into the bathroom and proceeded to get into the cabinet under the sink, throwing things around at his whim. I now make sure the bathroom door stays closed.

-Pulled the wiring out from our entertainment center

-Changed the settings on the receiver so we had no sound

-Hid the remote under his exersaucer. You should have seen how we scrambled to find that thing.

-Pulled books off of the bookshelf. Fortunately, he didn’t rip any of them up. Yet.

-Sniffed and then tried to eat a tuft of cat fur he discovered floating on the floor

-Tried to rip open a trash bag I had just tied up and removed from the trashcan. Fortunately, I saw what he was trying to do and was able to intervene before he succeeded.

-Dragged rugs across the room

This is just a small list of the mischief my little baby will get into in a short amount of time! I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff. When he’s awake, he is literally all over the place!

He says Mama and Dada a lot, and he’s even said “CAT!” a few times as he scoots around, grasping at the air his fingers splayed open with in hopes of getting a handful of their fur. Fortunately, with the exception of Andrew, they are smart enough to run away from him. Oh the sound of him scooting accross the floor is priceless. He slaps those little hands down on the hardwood as he lifts his body up and scoots forward. SLAP!-BUMP!-SLAP!-BUMP! And he’s getting super fast.

He has also pulled himself up into a standing position. He’s only done it once so far, but it’s so crazy to see my little baby in a standing position as he holds on to something for support. What am I going to do when he starts walking? This time really is going by so fast.

He’s been such a grumpy bear the past couple of weeks. I don’t know if it’s teething or what, but it’s been rough. He’s still waking up multiple times a night, and spends most of the day whining and crying and chewing on those fingers. I’ve tried giving him children’s ibuprofen, children’s Tylenol, teething pellets that you dissove in water, gripe water, and nothing seems to help with the exception of gripe water. He had a pretty bad cold last week with a low fever, puking, and loss of appetite. He’s eating better now but is still so dang grumpy. I don’t know if the cold is lingering or if his little teeth just hurt. And he won’t chew on anything but his fingers!! I have all kinds of teething toys, but he refuses them. Poor buddy. Let’s hope this phase passes quickly because this mama is worn out!

So earlier this week, I took my sweet boys to the park for a picnic. I grabbed myself some fried chicken then got Nathan some chicken nuggets. We spread out a sheet at the park and had a glorioius meal. John mostly lurched around on the sheet, trying to take Nathan’s drink while making those adorable grunting noises that he makes. As we were eating, a small group of boys, about 5 years old, come by kicking a soccer ball. They got pretty close to smacking me with the ball, and Nathan said, “Hey guys!!! We’re trying to eat so don’t kick that ball here!” Ha ha. I love that kid.

When we finished eating, Nathan bounded over to the playground to let off some energy as I cleaned up. John attentively supervised. After I packed everything back up, John and I meandered over to a bench so I could keep a better eye on the playgound happenings. That one kid with the soccerball was in the middle of all the playground equipent kicking his ball around. Literally. The kid was kicking it up onto the play structures and all over the place. He must have thought he was cool. The mother and some dude who may have either been her boyfriend or just someone she was flirting with were sitting on the swings. She appeared oblivioius to the antics of her kid and talked in this annoying high-pitched voice that oozed of low-self esteem and desperation.

After a while, Nathan took notice of this kid with the soccerball. See, I’ve always taught Nathan to share. Well, he doesn’t HAVE to share if he doesn’t want to- but those things he doesn’t want to share stay at home in his room. Once he brings it out and plays with it in front of others, it’s fair game. So with this knowledge, Nathan bounds over to the kid and asks him if he can play, too. The kid, being the incredible hotshot that he thought he was, starts fancy-kicking the ball away from Nathan. Nathan has poor fine and gross-motor skills, so he finds it absolutely fascinating to watch when other kids have more advanced skills than him. Nathan sees this ball-kicking an an invitation to start playing, so he starts chasing after the boy. I watch from a distance, curious to see how this would evolve. Of course, as an adult with years of experience on my side, I already knew what would happen. I could just about smell the stench of Entitled Jerk radiating off this kid. But I wanted to see how Nathan would handle it when the inevitable occured.

And the inevitable did indeed happen. After a couple of minutes of Nathan trying to kick the soccerball, the kid finally grabs it off the ground and tells Nathan to get away. I stand up, John on my hip, and start slowly walking toward them, just in case I needed to intervene. At first, Nathan, who doesn’t have a good grasp on social issues, started laughing. He told the kid that the nice thing to do on the playground is to share. The kid said he didn’t have to share.

And then the hand-flapping started.

And then the tears.

Nathan, who doesn’t understand this hostility, starts bellowing (loudly!) that if the kid doesn’t share, Nathan’s going to go home and never play with him ever again. The kid said, who cares? Nathan’s hand flapping became more vigorous as he started yelling that he wants to play and he wants to be friends. That stupid mother just sat there on the swing and laughed. Sensing a meltdown, I called Nathan over and whispered that some parents never teach their kids how to be good people, how to share, or even manners for that matter. I told him it might be best to stay away from jerks like that. Nathan tearfully agreed. I helped him dry his eyes and off he went to play with some other kids.

And then I heard that mother. I use the term loosely, as being a mother is an ACTIVE job. She told her boyfriend/fling/whoever he was that “I don’t know how old that other kid is- he’s such a brat and needs to grow up.” I bristled. If I was a dinosaur, my spines totally would have been poised for attack. About that same time, Nathan tried one last time to play with that awful kid and the mother called out, “Just throw it over his head. He can’t get it then!” Really? She’s actively encouraging bullying? Of a kid with autism?! Granted, she doesn’t know Nathan’s issues, but that’s just it- you never know. Nathan, thank goodness, didn’t understand the implications of her taunting. He heard her say throw the ball over his head and thought it was a game. He hand-flapped and screamed, “YEAH! LET’S DO THAT!”

I stood where I was at and stared at this mother. I really couldn’t believe she just acted that way towards my child. Apparently, I must have been putting off some don’t-mess-with-my-kid vibes because she started shifting around, eventually getting up and sitting in a few different places. And then one of the other kids started picking on Nathan- told him he wasn’t “allowed” in the rock-climbing contraption that forms a circle that kids can get inside. When he tried to go in anyway, the kid pushed him down. I called Nathan to me and told him it was best to go home rather than play with bullies who have no conscience. Sweet boy came with me to the car, crying the whole time about how he just wanted to be friends. I told him that some kids aren’t worth being friends with. It’s more peaceful to be alone than to play with mean old bullies. Poor sweetie insisted that they were going to be friends.

And, as icing on the cake, as I was getting the kids back in the car to leave, this “mother” comes walking out to her car with FOUR kids in tow. All the ones that were mean. How odd. I don’t know if they were all hers- I know the one with the soccer ball was. And then the one with the soccer ball gets in the car and starts throwing baseball bats, gloves, and balls out into the road! She just looked at him as was like, “now, now.” All the kids were swarming around the side of my car as I was trying to back up, and she didn’t even try to keep them safe. I had to wait for them to move away.

The more I’m around other kids, the more I start to dislike them. It’s not even the kids’ fault- it’s the parents’ fault for raising them that way. It seems there are quite a number of these typse of parents out there. We’ve ran into a few awesome parents at the park, but the vast majority of them are just as big of a jerk as their kid. Guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?

Sometimes kids say the darndest things. When I pick Nathan up from school, we all drive through the front and a teacher walks them out and helps them get into the car. When I picked Nathan up yesterday, the teacher was helping him into his carseat and Nathan asked if Daddy was home.

“Not yet,” I replied. “He’s still at work.”

Then, with all seriousness and a completely straight face, he looked at me and said, “Is Daddy wearing clothes today?” The teacher busted out laughing. I told Nathan that yes, Daddy was wearing clothes today. Just like he does every single day of the year. (No one in my house, including the kids, walks around without clothes on. Well, come summer time, I may have the baby in just his diaper because let’s face it- naked babies in cloth diapers are only the cutest things ever!)

Through fits of laughter, the teacher told me that they’ve learned to not believe anything the kids tell them since they say the most bizzare things. Thank goodness she understands because that might have been a little awkward trying to explain to her that we do indeed wear clothes.

In other news, Nathan had his first ear infection ever. Nathan was fine when I dropped him off at school on Thursday, other than a residual runny nose and cough from a lingering cold. However, when I picked him up from school that day, l could tell something was very wrong. He was crying and holding his little ear, tears streaming down his face like miniature waterfalls. The teacher who brought him out told me he’d been complaining about his ear hurting that day, but it had apparently gotten worse in the last hour or so.

I asked Nathan where he hurt, and he said (obviously) that it was his ear. I asked him if he put anything inside his ear and he said a balloon popped in his ear. Since he’s on the tail end of a nasty cold, I was worried about either an ear infection or a busted ear drum since he said a balloon popped in his ear. Nathan was screaming and crying so hard that he couldn’t talk, so I immediately called his doctor.

I know I’ve said this before, but I have to say it again- I LOVE their pediatrician. When I told the receptionist what was going on, she asked how soon I could be there and I said five minutes. We get there and waited only long enough for me to take Nathan’s coat off before we were called back. Nathan was screaming the whole time and his ear was bright red. He was so pitiful, in fact, that everyone we came across at the doctor’s office tried to offer him words of consolation. “Poor buddy, don’t worry we’ll get that ear taken care of,” “Aw bless him,” “It’s okay little man, we’re going to help you,” among other sweet things.

The doctor took one look at his ear and confirmed it was an ear infection. And while he was looking at his ear, Nathan asked the doctor to get the balloon out. Fortunately, there were no balloon pieces in there. Nathan’s ear drum was bulging from the ear infection, however, but the doctor said since we caught it so early, he was going to be just fine. Administering the numbing drops was another story. They know about his sensory issues, and bless them for being so accomodating. The nurse explained to Nathan exactly what she was going to do and what it would feel like, but he still panicked once she put them in.

See, his brain processes sensory information differently than that of a typical person. Sensory input (such as the wind in our hair, textures, sounds, etc.) that may be annoying or even pleasant for us can be excruciating for him. Even showers are painful for him. Because of his autim, he doesn’t (or can’t) tell us how it feels, but judging from his reaction, I suspect it feels like needles jabbing at his skin. So anyway, the feeling of the cold medicine dripping into his ear caused him to start shrieking and flopping around, but the nurse handled it perfectly. Ironically enough, he really enjoyed having the cotton in his ear, and even asked for another piece when the first one fell out. He was still reeling from the drops when the doctor returned with the prescription, but he was able to calm Nathan down and even solicited a laugh or two by giving high-fives and “missing” a few of them. After the numbing drops and some ibuprofen, we left to drop of a prescription for antibiotics.

After further questioning in the car, Nathan said the balloon popped by his ear at home. I remember that- it happened a week or so ago. When it happened, I remember telling Nathan that we have to be very careful with balloons next time because having them pop by our ears can cause ear pain among other problems. So apparently when his ear started hurting, he thought it was because of the balloon popping. My sweet boy.

Nathan’s on the mend now and back to his old self. I hated seeing him in such pain. This is his first ear infection ever- and after seeing firsthand what kind of pain it causes, my heart really goes out to kids who suffer from numerous ear infections. Sweet Nathan. I’m glad I got him in when I did before it got worse! And I hope he doesn’t have to deal with something like that any time soon!